Cookies
What are cookies?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. They are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device.
Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.
When you visit a website, ‘session cookies’ are placed on your computer for the time you spend on the website and clear when you close your browser. Other types of cookies, called, ‘persistent cookies’ remain on your computer for a longer period until they are set to expire or until you use the browser function to clear cookies.
At N&P we use cookies to gather details of behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. We use these details to improve your experience by making it quicker and easier for you to use the website.
Please note, if you have accessed this website via a third party link or advertisement it is likely a cookie has already been placed on your machine.
The types of cookies we use
1. Strictly necessary cookies
We use strictly necessary cookies to enable the website to work effectively. These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. Without these cookies, some services you have asked for cannot be provided.
Examples of strictly necessary cookies we use are:
| Purpose | Expiry | Cookie Name |
|---|---|---|
| To direct your requests to the correct place | At the end of your browsing session | SS_X_JESSIONID |
2. Performance cookies
We use performance cookies to:
- check if you have cookies enabled
- help us understand how our website is used so we can improve customer experience
- help us improve the content on our website
- help us understand what errors occur so we can fix them
These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor - all information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.
Examples of performance cookies we use are:
| Purpose | Expiry | Cookie Name |
|---|---|---|
| To check if you have cookies enabled | At the end of your browsing session | check |
| To count the number of visits made to the website by a user | After 1 day | s_invisit |
| To determine what percentage of a webpage was displayed to a user | At the end of your browsing session | s_ppv & s_ppvl |
3. Customisation cookies
We use customisation cookies to store preferences that you select, such as font size.
These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, these cookies can be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for, such as watching a video, or to remember information that you have already provided on previous visits to a website.
4. Targeting cookies
These cookies are used to deliver adverts that are more relevant to you and your interests. For example, if you're looking for a mortgage, you might see more advertisements for mortgages - simply because the cookie has detected what you're looking for. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement, as well as help measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Targeting cookies are usually placed by third parties such as advertising networks with the website operator’s permission, so they are usually linked to site functionality provided by the third party organisation.
N&P do not use targeting cookies but we work closely with some third party companies who provide services such as customer feedback, management information, advertising, and social networking. In these cases, the third party organisation may set their own cookies which are controlled by them and covered by their own policies:
| Purpose | Third Party | More Information: Third Party Cookie Policy |
|---|---|---|
| To measure and improve the effectiveness of our advertising | Bing (BingAds) | about.ads.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/policies/microsoft-advertising-privacy-policy |
| www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/ | ||
| Google (AdWords, Remarketing, DoubleClick Bid Manager) | policies.google.com/technologies/types | |
| VisualIQ (Tapad, eXelate) | www.visualiq.com/privacy |
Please note YBS is not responsible for the content of external websites.
You can turn off targeting cookies only by blocking specific companies if you’d prefer. You will still receive advertising on the internet, but the ads you see may not be as relevant to you and your interests.
You can set your preferences here: www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choice
Lawful consent
Cookies are needed to enable you to get the full experience from our website and services. By using our website, you're consenting to our use of cookies as outlined above.
You can, of course change your cookie settings at any time through your browser.
Changing your cookie settings
If you decide to change your cookie settings, you can do so via your browser’s settings. Each browser works in a different way, so you'll need to search for 'cookie settings' in your browser's help section to find out how to do this.
Cookies are stored locally to each browser and device so if you have multiple devices (computer, mobile phone, tablet etc.) or use different browsers, you will need to apply your chosen settings to each.
It is important to note that N&P cannot guarantee the performance of our website if you block some or all cookies. If you modify your browser settings, you can start accepting cookies from us again at any time.
Further information about cookies
- The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance website Your Online Choices allows you to install opt-out cookies across different advertising networks.
- Google has developed a browser add-on to allow users to opt-out of Google Analytics across all websites which use it. This is also available in the available in the Chrome web store.
- Some browsers include a feature known as ‘Do Not Track’ or DNT. This allows you to indicate a preference that websites should not track you. However, whilst DNT is available in many browsers, websites are not required to recognise its request, so it may not always work. You can get help on how to use DNT in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
- Internet Explorer has a feature called Tracking Protection Lists which allows you to import a list of websites you want to block.
You can find out more about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org.
For more information on how private browsing works as well as its limitations, visit the support pages for your browser.